High Tunnel

We have been busy as little bees here this week. We finally got in the last of our tomatoe and pepper plants on Tuesday just in time for a frost Wednesday night. Since we have over a acre and a half of garden we couldn't cover everything so we took our chances and didn't cover anything. Bad decision. Frost got a lot of my squash, most of the cucumbers, and about half of my tomatoes. I finally got the plastic over this high tunnel Wednesday morning which saved the fifty or so plants in there. This was a great project for a tightwad like me. The frame is made from two yard barn size canopy type frames. I got those from my sister-in -law after they had been wrecked by the wind at their house. I made a base for them by putting in post every eight feet and then cutting them level. I then nailed a landscaping timber across the tops of the posts. The frame was then fastened to the landscape timber with screws. Since the frames are spaced rather far apart I was worried there would not be enough support for the plastic sheeting. I used plastic baling twine to make a support grid between the metal frame, after the plastic sheeting was on I put another grid of twine over it. This seems to have done the trick as the cover stayed on Thursday night despite the 35 mile per hour winds we had.

Looking inside you can see I laid plastic sheeting on the ground to keep the grass down. This is scrounged material too. It is empty silage bag which is some TOUGH plastic. Then I set in my scrounged plastic buckets and we were good to go. I put some pallets across the ends to act as wind breaks. I am hoping this will give the tomatoes and peppers the extra warmth they need to mature a little earlier. This year I just used common construction type plastic sheeting . I plan to replace it with regular greenhouse film next year. It has UV inhibitors which extend it's life considerably. This project cost me less than $100 . Landscape timbers$40, Plastic sheet $25, Twine $25,1" Conduit to repair frame $8= $98.00

Here is a pic of the flax in bloom. It is not as tall as we thought it would be but we have not had much rain. It may grow more while in bloom too, we have not raised it before so we don't know. Guess I better get busy and build Ann the various tools she will need to process the fiber.